Sci-Fi Has Changed A Lot In The Past Decade — These 7 Reads Will Show You How

Let me tell you about the most revolutionary science fiction book I've ever read.

It was a few years ago. 2018. And I didn't think much about it when I shoved it in my bag and headed out the door. It was a slight thing with a weird title by an author just debuting on the adult lists and, to me, it was just the thing I was reading on a weekday when I had nothing else more pressing that I had to do.

I remember opening the book, folding back the cover, reading the first lines --

The machine said the man should eat tangerines. It listed two other recommendations as well, so three in total. A modest number, Pearl assured the man as she read out the list that had appeared on the screen before her: one, he should eat tangerines on a regular basis; two, he should work at a desk that received morning light; three, he should amputate the uppermost section of his right index finger.

And after that? I was gone. Those lines, in their perfect blandness, weird specificity and WTF kick of the whole finger thing, dropped me like a sucker punch. How do you not keep reading? How do you not need to know who and, like, how and, for god's sake, why after something like that.

I lost most of a day to Katie Williams's I read it straight through, and when I was done, I read the whole thing again — taking that, I think, was remarkably unsuccessful at detailing just how thoroughly this book had blown my mind.